


It’s Imperfections That Make This Special

by MiMyMomo



Category: Firebringer - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baking, F/F, Happy Ending, Lots of Crying, Valentine's Day, and in their twenties, i lost so much sleep writing this, somewhat a sequel to a story I haven’t written yet, sorry for that, they’re in college, this is shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 16:49:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17791100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiMyMomo/pseuds/MiMyMomo
Summary: A Valentine’s Day baking class, burnt cheesecakes and Jemilla asks Zazzalil a really important question.





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my 2nd time trying to post this...ugh. This story wasn’t originally 1 chapter but I split it into 3 parts. Jemilla’s the emotional one this not Zazzalil (what a twist)  
> Inner Thoughts: Italics  
> Song Lyrics: Bold

“‘The 6th Annual Cupid’s Couples Cooking Valentine’s Day Baking Class sponsored by Bendall University. Wednesday February 13th at 6 pm’. So this is the event that you’re hosting Emberly?” Jemilla asks examining the flyer with filled to the brim with unrealistic pink, white and red hearts and cartoon desserts before passing it to her girlfriend Zazzalil. The ‘Tribe’ as the group called themselves, were hanging out at their favorite pizza restaurant just as they did every Friday after school was done. They sat at their usual table in their usual spots: Zazzalil, Jemilla, Emberly and Grant on one side, while SB (Smelly Balls), Tiblyn, Chorn and Schwoopsie sat on the other side with Keeri and Ducker on the ends. Multiple steaming hot pizzas and side dishes lined the table with an array of drinks and plenty of laughs and stories of the past week to go around.

“Yep!” the girl in glasses exclaims, blowing on a scorching hot slice of greasy pepperoni and olive pizza before taking a bite. “For my assignment in class I need to volunteer at an event and work as an assistant instructor.”

“Well it sounds fun but do we need to be couples to go?” Schwoopsie asks taking a swig of her pepsi. “Because besides you and Grant and Jemilla and Zazzalil, the rest of us are kinda outta luck.”

Emberly shakes her head, “nope! Well not romantic partners that is. They wanted to capture the mushy Valentine’s day crowd and went with the couples gimmick so they’re doing sign-ups in groups of two. You just need to go in pairs.”

“Well I’m sold,” Tiblyn declares, clapping her hands together. “Chorn you can be my partner if you want?” The offer was much more a plead than a standard offer. Chorn just shrugs and continued to eat their pizza.

“I’m in too I guess,” Schwoopsie says smiling at her friends.

“Hell yeah!” SB cheers nearly knocking over his Mountain Dew onto his, Keeri’s and Tiblyn’s plates. “Ducker! You’re with me!”

Ducker, who was focused on shoveling as many pieces of his marinara drenched cheesy bread into his mouth, glances up and nods at SB. His cheeks puffed and filled with chewed up bread, red sauce covered his lips and chin.

“You two are disgusting,” Emberly chided. She turns to Jemilla and Zazzalil, the latter was placing a sloppy, exaggerated and very oily kiss on her girlfriend’s cheek causing the short haired girl to chuckle and smack her on the arm. The two are so close their bodies rub against each other with every slight move the other makes. ‘ _I know it’s a snug fit with all of us, but it’s definitely not THAT snug’_ , Emberly thinks to herself, but hey if you had been dating as long as they had you get a pass. “So Jemilla, Zazzalil, are you two gonna sign up?”

Jemilla opens her mouth to speak but was instantly cut off by her girlfriend. “Sorry Embs, I can’t. Kerri and I have some important business to attend to that day. Right Keeri?”

“We do?” the blonde questions, grabbing another slice of her veggie pizza. Zazzalil kicks her friend under the table. “Oww!” Keeri yelps turning to Zazzalil who in return was glaring at her.

“Yes Keeri, we do,” Zazzalil the spoke slowly through a forced smile, trying and failing to look casual. The two stared at each other for a few seconds, having a full blown conversation solely through their eyes and brows alone.

“Oh yeah, that thing! I totally forgot…” Keeri says trying to play off whatever just happened between the two friends as nothing out of the ordinary. While the rest of the group to was suspicious of what was going on with Zazzalil and Keeri, Jemilla on the other hand seemed to be...relieved? Now that was really suspicious.

“Oh look at that! Hey Keeri come with me to pay the bill okay?” Zazz says quickly grabbing Keeri’s arm and pushing her in the direction of the front of the restaurant.

“Okay,” Emberly speaks out, “that was really weird.”

“Yeah!” “Definitely.” “Super weird.” the whole table agrees, well minus Jemilla.

“And is anyone gonna tell them that we already paid for the food right after we ordered?” Grant speaks up first time since the food was brought out. However no one paid attention to his comment and instead honed in on Jemilla who was oddly calm about her girlfriends fidgety behavior.

“So Jemilla, do you know what was up with that?” Emberly asks. She’s hesitant on whether or not she should even question and prod into their relationship but as one of their closest friends she believes she has the honor.

Jemilla tilts her head and shrugs, “yeah I think I do. But I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about?” the shock is evident in Emberly’s voice and face. “What do you mean? What’s going on? How can you be so calm when your girlfriend, of soon to be FIVE YEARS in March I should mention, is suddenly acting like...that?” she raises her arms and waves them around for emphasis.

“Plus her and Keeri been weirdly busy lately,” Schwoopsie adds in. “And now she’s too busy to go to Emberly’s event which is the day before Valentine’s day? You don’t think it’s a little bit odd Jemilla?”

“It’s because I’ve been dating Zazz for so long I know this isn’t something I need to be concerned about,” Jemilla counters. It’s true; the two had had dating since their senior year in high school after flirting with each other for the entire latter half of junior year. They probably would’ve started dating sooner if they hadn’t gotten into that huge fight after the student council elections that broke up any sort of friendship the two had for nearly six months. The two never fully explained to the others what exactly caused the big rift between them but they had their ideas. Both girls were running for student body president at the time (the tension from the election caused most of the early on flirting), and when Zazzalil pulled the surprise of the century and actually beat Jemilla, the fragile string that attached the two finally snapped.

After a few major hiccups concerning Zazz’s presidency, including the jeopardization of their senior prom that year, the two eventually reconciled and started dating shortly after. There’s even a video of them confessing to have been dating hidden somewhere in the bowels of the internet that may or may not include the two being forced to make out at an improv show they were participating in. And the video may or may not be titled: ‘OMG PRESIDENT ZAZZ AND JEMILLA MAKE OUT??!?!!?’ or something close to that. But hey, that’s another long story for another time.

“I’m pretty sure Zazzalil and Keeri are just planning something for Valentine’s day.”

“How do you know that?” Emberly grills.

“Well, I did wake up a few Saturdays ago to an empty bed and may have overheard Zazzalil on the phone with Keeri talking about how she needed help coming up with ‘the perfect plan for Valentine’s day’ and fast,” Jemilla says taking a long satisfied sip of her lemon water. Schwoopsie and Tiblyn are stunned by the revelation while the rest of the table nods their heads and murmurs about how that sounds like something Zazzalil would do.

“Oh! But that brings up something I need to ask.” Jemilla turns to Schwoopsie, “Shwoopsie you’re going to Emberly’s thing right?” The blonde nods her head. “Okay can I be your partner for it?”

Schwoopsie makes a puzzled face but agrees nonetheless. “Uh sure! Zazzalil won’t get jealous that you’re gonna be hang out with me, your ex, at a couples event right?” she jokes.

“Number one) Zazzalil isn’t going to know. And number two) we dated for like three months in Sophmore year and we’re still friends, I think she’d be alright.”

The group whips their heads in unison to look back at Jemilla. ‘ _Creepy’_ Jemilla thinks to herself.

“What do you mean Zazzalil isn’t going to know?” Schwoopsie asks in disbelief.

“I’m not going to tell her I’m going.”

Why not?”

“Because I want to surprise her,” Jemilla states like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Think about it, Zazzalil’s favorite part of this holiday is the candy and sweet stuff right?” The group nods their heads in confirmation. “So how happy would Zazz be if one of my gifts to her on Valentine’s day is desserts I made with my own hands? I can’t surprise her with that if she tagged along or knew I was going.” Jemilla had a point. Besides Emberly, Zazzalil was the resident food lover in their group. She would most likely be over the moon to get something sweet to eat.

“I think she will be more shocked just by the fact that Jemilla actually made something and didn’t buy it,” SB jokes. Jemilla rolled her eyes while the rest of the table laughed. Another truth, Jemilla NEVER cooks anything. Never. Ever. If it required a recipe beyond add water or put in microwave/oven to heat, you can bet Jemilla didn’t make it. And subsequently due to this, Zazzalil has been the permant cook in her and Jemilla’s relationship. No one in the group can even remember the last time they’d seen Jemilla using a stove or oven besides to heat something up. They all just reasoned that Jemilla most likely didn’t know how to cook and never looked into it any deeper. But apparently that wasn’t the case.

“We’re back!”

The group turned their heads to see Zazzalil and Keeri walking back into the lounge area towards their table. In Zazzalil’s hand were two large rectangular plates and in Keeri’s was a stack of small circular ones. “No trip to Gelfino’s Pizza would be complete with ordering their famous -”

“Swiss roll cakes!” the two girl’s chimed.

“Cake! Cake! Cake!” the rest of the table joined in. If they hadn’t of been the managers favorite customers, they surely would’ve been kicked out by this point.

Keeri passes out the plates while Zazzalil places the two cakes down on the table. The first one is strawberries and cream, vanilla sponge cake lined with fresh strawberry jam the owner’s mom makes and filled with cream and tiny bits of cut strawberries. The top is dusted with powdered sugar and five strawberries, with small dollops of whipped cream in between them. The second one is a chocolate sponge cake filled with cream and swirled chocolate in the inside. The top is also coated with a generous amount of powdered sugar and instead of fruit, there’s a copious of white and dark chocolate drizzled in zig zag patterns and chocolate shavings for garnish.

Cakes are cut and slices are passed around. Arguments break out over who gets a strawberry from the top until Jemilla suggests to just cut them in half so everyone gets a piece. Grant graciously hands over his strawberry to Emberly. Zazzalil on the other hand sneakily steals Jemilla’s right off her plate, popping it into her mouth. As a result Jemilla steals Zazzalil’s right back without a second thought.

Their friends all share a look and silently agree, ‘ _those two were made for each other.’_


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baking Class Time! and maybe a mental breakdown...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inner Thoughts: Italics  
> Song Lyrics: Bold

Jemilla pulled into the empty university parking lot. After turning off her car she checks the time on her phone. 5:47. ‘ _Okay not too early, not too late._ ’

Buzz buzz. A text from Zazz <3.

[5:47 pm] Zazz <3: hey J-Mills did you get to your study group okay?

Jemilla glances outside her window at the dimly lit building. “Yup just got there now,” she texts back. Zazzalil’s reply takes only a few seconds.

[5:48 pm] Zazz <3: good! Sorry I’m busy tonight. But hey tomorrow evening I’ll be all yours and for the next 3 days after that ;)

Jemilla giggles at her girlfriends words but her stomach is instantly filled with nauseating flips and kicks. Tomorrow. ‘ _God I hope tomorrow goes okay._ ’ Without her noticing Zazzalil had sent another text.

[5:50 pm] Zazz <3: So I’ll see you tomorrow? @ 6?

The nausea and worry Jemilla has been feeling started to calm down seeing that she could tell that Zazzalil seemed just as nervous as her. For completely different reasons yes but in a way the shared jitters they were both feeling was a form of comfort to her. ‘ _Even after all these years of dating, we still turn into nervous school girls around each other…_ ’ “Yeah, at 6 of course!”

[5:51 pm] Zazz <3: love you

Jemilla smiles and sends a quick “love you too” back before grabbing her jacket and purse. She hops out the car, locks the door and heads into the large brick building. She quickly discovers that finding the room where the cooking class would be in would be much harder than she expected. ‘ _Wow, for a culinary school this place is like a damn labyrinth_.’  

After fumbling around the hallways for a few minutes, Jemilla spots a few more patrons enter the building and decides to follow them. ‘ _Better than just walking around like a crazy person_.’

Luckily for her the people she stalked ends up leading her right to the cooking class. Outside the door there’s a sign in table being handled by two women, neither can be much older than her age, one with dirty blonde hair, the other a warm chocolate brown. There’s sharpies and name tags on the left in front of the blonde and slim laptop in front of the other girl.

“Name please?” the girl with chocolate hair asks looking up from her laptop.

“Jemilla Richards.”

“Jemilla...Richards...yep I see your name right here!” the girl says clicking something on her laptop. “Okay just write your name on this sheet here,” the girl slides a sign up sheet to her “ then write your name on one of those name tags and you’ll be all set.”

“Okay thank you.” Jemilla says. She scans the sheet to see if any of her friends are already here. After quick look see sees Tiblyn’s name, Chorn’s, Schwoopsie’s, Ducker’s and SB’s, who apparently had to scribble out the words ‘Smelly Bal’ before starting over and writing his real name down on the line. ‘ _Oh SB…_ ’

When she finishes singing the sheet, Jemilla grabs one of the tags and a light blue marker. The tags are Valentine’s Day themed and have a red border with cartoon hearts around them. She simply writes ‘Jemilla’ in the blank space then heads inside.

To her surprise, the class is actually quite full. Nearly every kitchen station is occupied by people whose ages range from older teen to the elderly. The room is set up into two columns of five long rows, with each row having two stations. The every station has a sink on the ends, counter space with most of it at the moment being taken up by bowls and utensils, an electric cooktop, and an oven in the middle. At the front of the room is a separate station with a document camera on it. Behind it there’s a SmartBoard with the greeting ‘WELCOME!’on it, plastered with clip art hearts and cupcakes.

Jemilla looks over the sea of bodies and spots the back of Chorn’s head, their long fiery red hair unmistakable. As she makes her way back she starts to see the rest of her friends.They’re on the side opposite of the door in the back three rows, with Tiblyn and Chorn in the third row, then Shwoopsie behind them, with Ducker and SB in the back. _‘Of course they choose the back._ ’

By the time Jemilla gets to the other side of the room, Tiblyn has already noticed her and has began waving in her direction. “Jemilla! Over here!” The rest of the tribe catches sight of her and join in with Tiblyn’s chanting causing other eventees to stare at them. Jemilla can feel her cheeks heat up in embarrassment at her energetic friends as she picks up her speed, trying her hardest not to bump into anybody.

“Hey guys…”

“Hey Jay!” SB shouts with a wide smile. Jemilla is quick to shush him an remind him that they are a) in public, b) indoors and c) standing right next to each other.

“Jemilla we saved you a spot next to Schwoopsie.” Tiblyn points to the empty space to the right of Schwoopsie, next to the window pane. As Jemilla takes her spot by Schwoopsie, an older looking gentleman with fading bleach blonde hair wearing a white chef’s coat takes his position in the front of the class. ‘He must be the head chef.’ Jemilla’s thoughts are interrupted by an elbow to her arm. “Ouchie…” she moans rubbing her skin where Schwoopsie’s rough elbow hit. “What the fuck Schwoopsie?” she asks turning to face the blonde with a flabbergasted look on her face.

“Look there’s Emberly,” she whispers pointing up to the front. Jemilla looks ahead and there’s Emberly with her dark black hair tied up and secured in a bun. She’s the shortest one up there, plus the only girl to boot. She and the two other student chefs, a man with short pitch black hair and another with longer sandy brown hair brushed back in a ponytail, are wearing matching chef’s coats, with the school’s logo embroidered on the left breast pocket.

“Hello couples, friends, family members. Welcome to the 6th Annual Cupid Couples Cooking Valentine’s Day Baking Class sponsored by Bendall University!” the older man spoke out in front of the large group of attendees. I’m chef Kendall Macvey and with me I have three of my best culinary students with me to help give demonstrations and assist you when needed. Can you three introduce yourselves?”

Jemilla didn’t really pay attention to the two males intros, instead she focused in on small Emberly who was to give her introduction last. She was standing awkwardly straight as if trying to assume some authority over the group. “Hi I’m assistant chef Emberly. I’m a senior at Bendall University and working to get a degree in food management.”

“Alright folks,” Chef Macvey booms with his deep voice. “ So, many of you might be wondering what exactly is on our menu for tonight. Students will you do the honors in telling them what we will be preparing this evening?”

The boy with the dark hair starts, “first we will be making classic miniature cheesecakes with a graham cracker crust.”

“Oh yeah cheesecake!” Schwoopsie claps.

 _' Yes cheesecake!'_ Jemilla cheers internally, ‘ _Cheesecake is Zazzalil’s favorite dessert. This is perfect!_ ’

“Next,” ponytail boy says “we’ll be making chocolate truffles with an assortment of different toppings.”

“Truffles?”

“It’s chocolate Ducker.” Jemilla whispers spinning around slightly to face the two boys in the back.

“Oh hell yes!” SB exclaims and Jemilla just rolls her eyes and faces forward once again.

Finally, Emberly speaks up, “lastly we will be rolling out and icing vanilla cookies that have already been prepared by students in the baking and pastry department.” After hearing the menu the room is filled with chirping and and excited murmurs.

“Alright, alright,” Chef Macvey calls out, all the chatter ceases and all eyes and attention turn back to him. “We got a full menu and only a few hours so let’s get this show on the road okay?” The class lets out a verbal confirmation and Chef Macvey continues on. “At each station there’s a printed copy of each recipe and all the ingredients and utensils you will need. I will be be demonstrating how to prepared each dessert step by step so you can follow me as we go along. Or if you’re confident in your baking abilities, you can continue at your own pace. I will be having my student assistant chefs walk around all the stations to check in on you and offer any help if necessary.

“So let’s get started on those cheesecakes first.”

“Well we better get going huh Jemilla?” Schwoopsie chuckles and turns only to see that her friend has already started looking at the recipe. ‘ _Ah Jemilla...always two steps ahead of everyone else,_ ’ she sighs and joins in helping the curly haired girl.

They begin by dividing jobs: Jemilla on mixing duty while Shwoopsie handles the crust. Silently the two measure and dump ingredients into sized cups and bowls, mixing them together then finally pouring them into lined cupcake tins. After placing them in the oven Jemilla bends down in front of the oven and stares at baking desserts and starts whispering to the glass screen.

“Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay. I need you to be perfect, so please be okay.”

“Ah Jay, are you okay?”

“Shit uh yeah, yeah,” Jemilla stammers standing up quickly. “So what’s next?”

“Chef Man says we’re making the truffles next. And that we need to start tempering those chocolates by putting those chocolates,” she points to the bowls of semisweet and dark chocolate chips, “over a double boiler. Which apparently is just a bowl over a pot of near boiling water.”

“Tempering chocolate…”

“I’ve never tempered chocolate before in my life. You Jemilla?”

“Nope, never,” she shakes her head. “But hey, I’m willingly to try first if you want?” Her face when she pitches this idea is less confident than Schwoopsie is hoping for.

“Yeah sure, it’s all yours Jay,” Schwoopsie raises her hands as if offering the chocolate to her. Jemilla gives a quick nod then gets to work on the chocolate.

“Okay put water into the pot. The. Turn on the stove…” Jemilla recites the recipe step by step, eyes half glued to the sheet of paper, half to the actual cooking in front of her. She pours the chocolates into the glass bowl and begins stirring as to not burn them. “Okay next is the cream…” Jemilla adds in the cream and immediately she can tell something was wrong. The chocolate is getting stiffer and stiffer with each stir. The once smooth melted chocolate now is a dark sludgy mess. “Uh Schwoopsie…?”

Shwoopsie immediately calls over for Emberly to come help. The dark haired chef makes it there in no time and promptly begins to inspect the bowl of destroyed chocolate.

“I see the problem,” she frowns. “You seized the chocolate. It’s mostly likely that you didn’t add enough moisture. That or your cream wasn’t warm enough. You did remember to heat it up before adding it right?” Both girls look at their curly haired friend but when the do they are greeted to a ‘oh shit I forgot’ face. Both girls are at a loss for words. Jemilla...forget to do something? It was weird for them to see Jemilla be so careless with anything.

“Don’t worry Jemilla! Tempering chocolate is actually quite tricky!” Emberly says words flying at a mile per minute. “I used to mess up doing it all the time. Here how about this time we let Schwoopsie try? I’ll go get you guys some more chocolate so you can try again.” She swiftly runs to the front to grab more ingredients while the other two girls stand in silence. Both in shock over the simple mistake that was just made.

When Emberly returns with the chocolates and more cream she tells them that she’ll stay to watch them temper this time. Schwoopsie smiles in thanks while Jemilla is still silent, eyes locked to the dirty countertop.

Schwoopsie’s chocolate comes out perfect. They, being Schwoopsie and Emberly, get the mixture on to a baking sheet then set it in the fridge to cool. Jemilla is still out of it, instead of the countertop she now silently stares out the large window that looks out directly into the parking lot.

“Hey guys look at our cheesecakes! Aren’t they cute?” Tiblyn holds up the cupcake tray filled with white mini cheesecakes.

“They look really good Tibs!” Emberly says and Schwoopsie nods her head in agreement. Tiblyn grins widely at the praise and Chorn takes the second tray out from the oven and begins placing them on a cooling rack.

“How much time does your guys have left in the oven?”

“Let me check,” Schwoopsie says glancing at the oven. “375.”

“No that’s the oven temperature,” Emberly awkwardly chuckles. “What’s the time?”

“That’s what it says, 375.”

“You guys remembered to set the timer on the oven right?”

Schwoopsie and Jemilla whip their heads and look at each other, as if to question if the other remembered to set the timer. No more than three seconds pass before they both scramble to open the oven door. As soon as they do, smoke immediately shoots out. Jemilla coughs and pulls out the tray, slamming it on the counter while Shwoopsie stands behind her fanning away the smoke.

They’re burnt. Completely burnt. The tops are black and brown, not an inch of white. Cracks all in the flesh. The edges of the cheesecakes run along the sides while the middles are sunken in.

The group gapes at the charred cakes in disbelief. “It’s okay! Maybe they’re salvageable?” Emberly asks uncertainly. “Here let’s take some of these out at check! Okay not this one, or this one...nope. No-.” Then something crazy happens. Something the group never thought they’d ever see:

Jemilla completely breaks down.

Tears rapidly fell from her eyes and violent sobs erupted from her body. She’s wearing the saddest, most heartbreaking face they have ever seen. Like someone had told her that her dog had died. Jemilla’s body is shaking and she moves her hands to hide her face. It’s as if a dam had been broken right in front of them. The six friends are completely startled by their despondent friend. None of them had ever seen Jemilla cry like this before. Sure, there had been a few tears here and there but never something like this. The sound of sniffles and muffled wails charge them back into action.

“Jemilla shhh, shhh it’s okay, you’re okay!” Tiblyn soothes as she reaches out and rubs her hands up and down the sobbing girl’s arms.

“Do you want us to call Zazzalil?” Ducker asks voice laced with a surprising amount of concern.

The girl aggressively shakes her head no. “What’s wrong Jemilla?” Schwoopsie brings her arm up and wraps it around Jemilla’s shoulder. “Is this about burning the cheesecakes?”

“Ooh I know, you can take some of ours!” Tiblyn offers, already starting to pick out a few of the nicer ones to give away. However this just makes Jemilla more upset.

“No!”

Tiblyn jumps nearly dropping the handful of cakes on the floor. She’s clearly hurt by Jemilla’s outburst which just baffles Emberly. “Okay, that was seriously unnecessary. So what the hell Jemilla what’s wrong with you?”

Jemilla removes her hands from her face. The first thing they saw was how red her eyes were from crying. The next thing was how her makeup was now ruined, runny mascara streaks ran down her cheeks. Lastly, they noticed how her face had morphed from sadness to pure frustration. “It’s all fucked up. I screwed everything up. This was supposed to be perfect! But it’s not…”

“Jemilla, it’s just stupid cheesecake-” Emberly exclaimed in exasperation.

“No, no it’s not just cheesecake! It’s more than that. So much more...it’s not perfect…”

“Why are you so obsessed with this stuff being perfect?” Emberly questions, her own voice now beginning to raise in volume along with Jemilla’s.

“Because I’m planning on proposing tomorrow and I can’t do that with burnt food Emberly!”

That gets Emberly to shut up instantly.

“Wait, propose?” Schwoopsie presses. Jemilla gives her a sharp nod. “As in like a full marriage proposal, propose?”

Jemilla forces out a bitter laugh, “yes Schwoopsie as in marriage. I was planning on coming here to bake something for Zazz and surprising her before I popped the question but you see how that’s working out!” She sighs, running her fingers through her hair, “I’ve been so worried about making this damn proposal perfect for weeks but I can’t even make a stupid cheesecake without burning it! Or temper chocolate! So how in the hell could I ever even think about proposing when I know in the end I’m just gonna fuck it all up?” More tears spill, dripping on to the kitchen countertop.

Suddenly Jemilla felt someone wiping away her tears: Emberly. “Jemilla I’m gonna tell you something that may or may not blow your mind.” She reaches down and grabs hold of Jemilla’s hands, still sticky from melted chocolate. “Zazzalil loves you. She’s absolutely nuts about you and has been for years now.” With hearing the word ‘nuts’, SB impulsively picks up a small bowl of chopped walnuts and holds them up over his head. Then he starts parading the bowl all around Emberly chanting “nuts, nuts, nuts”, causing Jemilla to crack a small smile and giggle at her friends ridiculous antics. Emberly rolls her eyes but focuses back on her frazzled friend, squeezing her hands again. “And Jay, I don’t think a couple of burnt cheesecakes or messed up chocolates is going to change that. Or jeopardize your proposal. But if you’re so worried that you absolutely need perfect desserts you can come over to mine and Grants place tomorrow and I can personally help you and make sure they turn out perfect.”

Jemilla locks eyes with Emberly in disbelief. “You’d really do that for me?”

“Of course! You two are some of my closest friends,” Emberly spoke through a smile, “plus I only have one class tomorrow and it’s business management so some baking sounds magical.”

“We all feel the same way Jay,” Schwoopsie says giving Jemilla another shoulder squeeze.

Jemilla glances around to look at the rest of her friends, various ingredients all over their faces, clothes and even hair but comforting smiles ever present. She could feel the tears returning but this time no longer due to dejection but elation. “Thanks guys.”

“No problem Jemilla.” Emberly says.

“Don’t mention it,” Ducker butt in. “Just don’t forget to mention this is in your wedding vows.” The group collectively rolls their eyes at Ducker’s blunt stupidity.

“Sure thing Ducker,” Jemilla shrugs, lightly shaking her head.

At that moment the beeping sound of multiple oven timers going off snap the group out of their peaceful moment. Other groups have already started rolling out their cut out cookies and putting them in the oven. Some are even beginning to pull them out. The room is filled with the sweet aroma of warm vanilla and sweet sugar, entirely overtaking the smoky burnt scent from the cheesecakes. Jemilla’s mistake slowly being wiped away from the air.

Emberly was the first to speak up, “so you think you’re ready to try again?”

Jemilla doesn’t say anything, choosing instead to walk over to the refrigerator pulling out a ball of plastic saran wrapped cookie dough and the cookie sheet covered in the slightly hardened chocolate. She pivots and makes her way back to her friends her signature determined smile brightly shines on her face. Her eyes twinkle in readiness.

“Let’s work it out!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 down!  
> One more to go!!  
> See you in Part 3!!!


	3. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemilla asks Zazzalil an important question. It gets gay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay last chapter!  
> Inner Thoughts: Italics  
> Song Lyrics: Bold

The next day at 1 pm the group all pile into Emberly and Grants tiny one bedroom apartment and help Jemilla rebake her mini cheesecakes and truffles (yes truffles as well. In an accident that had nothing to do with Jemilla this time (aka SB), all the finished truffles ended up on the ground in the university's kitchen) and finish any other last minute preparations she had. Well mostly Emberly and Grant helped her with the actual baking part, Tiblyn and Chorn decided they needed to upgrade and redesign Jemilla’s treat box and make it more ‘eye catching’. Schwoopsie took it upon herself to grill Jemilla on making sure she knew exactly what she was going to say during her proposal speech: “are you going to use her actual name or Zazzalil? Are you saying ‘you mean the world to me?’ Or ‘you mean everything to me?’ You keep switching them? You should totally mention the improv story, she’ll get super embarrassed and emotional. It’ll be perfect. Don’t forget which pocket you put the ring in!” Ducker and SB were mostly there to eat leftovers and play Smash Bros. on Nintendo Switch.

Hours later, Jemilla is ready. Well as ready as she could be. Her desserts look much better than yesterday’s, not perfect but now Jemilla is much more okay with that. ‘ _Imperfections add character and make things more special._ ’ Emberly went above and beyond with the cheesecakes, pouring leftover chocolate ganache on top and even adding a chocolate dipped strawberry. The truffles were nothing to scoff at either; some covered in nuts, sprinkles, powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Then there’s her cookies from last night that currently sat on a drying rack. The hearts are somewhat lopsided and some of the icing is smudged but they’re definitely still hearts.

Thanks to Schwoopsie, she could easily recite her speech to Zazz forwards and backwards. The box Tiblyn and Chorn designed is actually pretty simple but still cute. “See you put the truffles on the left side and the cheesecakes in the middle,” Tiblyn explains, pointing and placing the desserts in pink and red paper cupcake liners. “Then you can place the stack of cookies here on the right. That way she has to read them one at a time.”

Jemilla glances at the six cookies, all are simply iced with either a rosy red color or dusty pink with large white lettering. The nerves start coming back. ‘ _Is this really going to work? What if she says no? What do I do then?_ ’

“Hey!” SB yells jarring Jemilla out of her reverie. “I can tell what you’re thinking so stop it!”

“Zazzalil’s definitely going to say yes you just need to think positively!” Tiblyn chimes in. Chorn nods in agreement giving Jemilla an uncharacteristic smile.

“Don’t sweat this so much Jay,” Schwoopsie smiles, “you got this.”

Jemilla looks down at her cookies again then her box and it’s contents, perfectly imperfect. “Yeah okay you’re right. I got this.”

… 

“Hey J-Mills, you ready to go?” Zazzalil asks from inside her car, checking something on her phone.

“Yeah,” Jemilla says gently placing her bag in the backseat of Zazzalil’s car. ‘ _Please don’t fall,_ ’ she pleads silently to the blue duffle bag which secretly held her Valentine’s Day present. Before shutting the door Jemilla inspected the backseat to see if there was any indication of where Zazzalil was taking them. However she must of seriously thought this through because besides the expensive bottle of champagne belted in behind the driver’s seat and Zazzalil’s orange bag, there’s nothing that explicitly gives away where they’re heading. ‘ _Damn, okay Zazz hats off to you. You’ve officially stumped me,_ ’ Jemilla sighs closing the backseat door. She checks her jacket pocket for the eighth time in the last hour, ‘ _yup still there._ ’ Once she’s done she hops into the passenger's seat, shares a quick kiss with her girlfriend and maybe soon fiancée and fastens her seatbelt. “So are you going to tell me now where we’re going?”

“Nope! You’ll see once we get there, Zazzalil sings pulling out of Emberly’s apartment complex parking lot making her way to the freeway. “But don’t worry I’m not planning on killing you or anything,” she says with a wink.

“Well that’s good to know since we’ve been dating for basically five years.”

“Five glorious years,” Zazzalil comments removing her right hand from the steering wheel and entwining her fingers with Jemilla’s, bringing it up to her mouth and placing a sweet peck on the back of her hand. “Just relax babe and I’ll tell you when we get there.”

So Jemilla did just that, lying back in her seat and closing her eyes. She hadn’t been sleeping the best in the past few weeks from the pre-ask jitters so any extra sleep was appreciated. In no time she’s fast asleep, dreams of her and Zazzalil’s wedding playing in her mind.

It seems like no time has past when she feels Zazzalil shaking her awake. “Babe, babe, we’re here.” Jemilla stretches and wipes the sleep out of her eyes, where here was exactly she had no clue. It was pitch black outside but from the windshield she could see a large wooden house with a stone staircase. The lights in the house were on and candles lined the steps. And we’re those...rose petals?

Jemilla turns to face Zazzalil, who wore a shy smile on her face. Her cheeks red like the petals on the ground. “Yeah I let you sleep while I decorated and put some stuff away…surprise?”

Jemilla just laughs and leans over the console to kiss Zazz square on the lips before slipping out the car. When she goes to open the backdoor she looks up and sees the side she couldn’t see from the car. A lake.

The view was beautiful, the lake was surrounded by trees that seemed to stretch to the sky. The only light coming from the moon that reflects in the dark sparkling water. The night sky is littered with stars that look like tiny white specks. A little further down is a wooden dock and a shallow sandy bank. “God it’s beautiful here…”

“It is isn’t it?” Zazzalil spoke softly walking over to Jemilla and taking her hand in hers. “This place has a canoe in the back, so if you want we could try it out in the lake sometime this weekend?”

Jemilla is speechless. This was all too much to take in. “Wait, whose house it this?”

“My uncles,” Zazz says pulling Jemilla in the direction of the door. “He only uses it in the summer though so I asked him if I could borrow it for the weekend. This jackass didn’t tell me that he left it dirtier than a freaking landfill in here. So I had Keeri help me clean the place from head to toe the last few weeks.”

When they get to the door Zazzalil turns the knob and pushes the it open revealing one of the most beautiful homes Jemilla had ever seen. It looked like a place you would see in a home decor magazine under ‘beautiful lakeside cabins.’ Immediately after entering she was hit with the smell of something warm and floral, though that was probably from the dozens of candles that were being lit at that very moment, adding a faint orange glow to the room. The hickory wood floors were polished to the point where Jemilla could see the pimple on her face reflected in the shine. The living room had a massive at screen tv, a dark brown leather couch and a recliner on each side. There were a few tables and chairs in the room, also wooden. Along the one of the sides of the houses, there were large windows that reached from the floor to the ceiling. A  beautiful chandelier hung from the ceiling in between wooden beams. But the standout feature was the stone fireplace located on the side of the room. ‘ _oh we are definitely using that!_ ’ And as if Zazzalil could read her mind she reassures Jemilla that will indeed be using the fireplace, “don’t worry I brought plenty of firewood.”

The Jemilla gets settled in while Zazzalil starts on dinner. The master bedroom just like the rest of the house is stunning. Jemilla puts her bag on top of the king sized mattress and checks on her desserts, nothing broken. She leaves the ring box in her bag next to the treat box and zips it up, walking back into the living room then into the kitchen.

“ **It's been my fashion to keep my head dry and get my feet wet. But step by step, I've been letting you lead me towards the deep end,** ” Zazzalil sings serenely along to the song emulating from the speakers on her phone, stirring something in a pot. She hasn’t noticed the Jemilla enter the room. Jemilla tiptoes across the floor and wraps her arms around the shorter girls midsection, snuggling closer to her skin, placing tiny kisses against her neck. Zazzalil smiles and continues singing, louder this time. “ **Well I learned my lesson, honey. Just when you think you're that adult swim. That's precisely when somebody shows you to the ocean.**

**“So here we go. Head first, and no regrets. And no rules—we can stay as long as we want. Slow-dancing in the darkness. And all I know is I wanna be here with you from now on**.”

The two stay like this until dinner is done, shrimp and gnocchi with garlic parmesan cream sauce and salad. They crack up the bottle of champagne and realize that they don’t have champagne glasses and settle for plastic cups instead.

“Damn Zazz this is really good! And really fancy…”

“I know right? I just got the recipe off the internet. I had no idea what the hell gnocchi was but it looked good and thank god it is!”

After they finish they both change into pajamas and grab blankets from the bedroom. Jemilla sneakily pulls out both boxes of her bag. She hides the ring box in her pajama pants pocket and makes her way into the kitchen. Zazzalil starts a fire while Jemilla makes some hot chocolate she found in one of the cabinets. She leaves the dessert box in the kitchen while she brings out the drinks, setting down the mugs on the ledge of the fireplace. Music plays softly from Zazzalil’s phone. ‘ _Well Jemilla it’s now or never huh?_ ’

“Hey Zazz, I have a surprise for you.”

“Really what is it?” she asks partially distracted by the fire. Her hair is out of its usual ponytail, the brown waves cascading down her back. ‘ _She’s so beautiful…_ ’

Jemilla walks back into the kitchen and grabs the box off the counter along with two forks, handing the box over to Zazzalil before taking a seat next to her.

“What’s this?” she opens the box and simply says, “holy shit.” Jemilla smiles at the reaction. “Shit, Jemilla did you make these? And is that cheesecake with chocolate covered strawberries on them? I need a fork like right now!”

“Here,” Jemilla smiles passing her a fork. “And yes I did make them with Emberly’s help. I didn’t actually go to a study group yesterday, I went to Emberly’s cooking class.”

“Oh my god I’m so ready for this,” Zazzalil squirms happily taking a large bite of cheesecake. “Oh fuck that’s amazing!”

“Oh thank god I had to redo them because I burned the first batch.”

“Here you try,” Zazzalil scoops up a decent sized bite and offers it to Jemilla. “Here, ahhh.”

Jemilla opens her mouth and Zazzalil guides the fork into her mouth. ‘ _Oh shit Zazzalil wasn’t lying, these are amazing!_ ’ The two finish the cheesecakes, each eating one of the strawberries.

“Jemilla I’m gonna need you to bake for me more often now that I know about your secret ability in the kitchen. Ooh chocolate!”

Jemilla can feel her face heat up and it wasn’t because of the fire. “I’m telling you it was mostly Emberly but I guess I could try making them once and awhile.”

Zazzalil grins and pops another truffle in her mouth. “I look forward to it. Oh cookies and you wrote my name on this one!”

‘ _Shit!_ ’ Jemilla panics internally, the nerves coming back in tenfold. She starts to sweat. She’s not ready for this. “ **Don’t wanna walk alone. So let's get married. ‘Cause we don’t wanna walk alone. Or runaway, hey!** ” Fucking great now some random song on Apple Music is taunting her!

Zazzalil picks up the cookie iced with her name on it. She’s about to take a bite when she notices the cookie underneath it. “Will?” she reads, picking the cookie up and looks down at the next one and one after that and then the following ones after that. “You, Marry, Me, question mark...” she ponders over the message for a few seconds then she stills. Jemilla can hear her take a sharp breath in before turning to her. The girls face is full of an array of emotions that Jemilla can’t fully process. ‘ _No time for that now, just say something Jemilla!_ ’ She opens her mouth but nothing comes out. Her throat is dry and the room is getting dizzy. All the colorful, heartfelt words she had scripted to perfection earlier are gone, dropped into the dark sea nothingness in the corner of her mind. ‘ _Shit Schwoopsie is gonna kill me for forgetting this damn speech_.’

“Jemilla? What is-”

“I love you!” Jemilla yells starling Zazzalil and even herself. “I love you more than anything. And I know we argue sometimes and get on each other’s nerves, but I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to wake up every morning to you trying to keep me in bed instead of getting up and doing something productive. And I want you to keep telling me all the good and terrible ideas that run through your head on a daily basis. I want to be by your side permanently, for as long as I can. I love you and your ingenuity, your caring heart, how smart and stupidly brave you can be, hell I’ve even grow to like your laziness. Sorry I know I’m rambling at this point because proposing is fucking terrifying but…I love you. So Lilian Mary-”

“God please not my real name…” Zazzalil begs covering her face in embarrassment.

“...‘Zazzalil’ Prescott. Will you marry me?” Jemilla hold out the ring box showcasing the modest sized ring. It’s not much but hey she was a broke college senior, give her some credit.

Moments pass and Zazzalil doesn’t say anything, not one word. She just keeps her hands over her face. Jemilla starts to freak out again, lowering the velvet box. ‘ _Great job Jemilla, you fucked it up!_ ’ Her heart felt as if she was being stabbed by tiny needles as each second went by. “It’s okay to say no, I get it.”

Zazzalil sniffles behind her hands then whispers, “I can’t believe you beat me to it…” Jemilla freezes. ‘ _Wait, what?_ ’

Zazzalil moves her hands to her lap, her brown eyes shiny and wet from tears. But her lips were curled into a disbelieving smile. She pulls out a small black box from her pocket, opening it to reveal another diamond ring. Now it’s Jemilla’s turn to be shocked.

“Man I planned this whole evening and had this really good emotional speech that talked about our past that I was gonna give and everything. But you beat me to the punch,” Zazzalil brings one hand up to the back of her head, running it through her hair. Her eyes are glued to the floor. Jemilla begins to bawl, tackling Zazzalil to the ground. “Ah, Jemilla?” The rest of her sentence I’d cut off by Jemilla’s lips, wet and salty from tears but undeniably soft and warm.

Jemilla breaks off the deep kiss, choosing to instead sharply jab at Zazzalil with her pointer and middle fingers on the shoulders and stomach. “I thought you were going to say no! You weren’t saying anything you jackass! Fuck! do you know how horrifying that felt?” she confesses through tears pulling the shorter girls hair.

Zazzalil wraps her arms around her sobbing…fiancée? She puts one hand at the base where her head and neck meet and the other on her back. She gently scratches her fingers through her hair and circles on her back. “Okay, okay I deserve that. I’m sorry for scaring you. I was just shocked that’s all! I love you babe, so so, much.” They lay there for awhile until Jemilla let out all her tears. The only sounds coming from some song through the speakers, the crackling fire and the twos deep breaths.

“You never answered my question.”

“What do you mean?”

“Will you marry me?”

“I freaking proposed to you right back! That’s not an answer?”

“Nope, I need a verbal confirmation Lilian.” Zazz cringes at the use of her real name but chuckles at her girlfriend’s stubbornness, pulling her into an even closer embrace.

“Yes Jemilla, the answer is yes. A thousand times yes.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own any of the songs used in this chapter. I just really like them!  
> Aquaman by Walk The Moon  
> Let's Get Married MTV Unplugged version by Bleachers (funny this song came on when I was writing the proposal scene so that's why it's in here. It was a sign.)  
> I hope you got some enjoyment from this story cause oh boy I spent 24 hours on it and got like 2 hours of sleep last night writing it for Valentines Day (it's still the 14th here when I'm posting this).  
> Happy V-Day or Singles Day!


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